<p>I received a 4 on the AP Chemistry Test but do not feel really confident in chemistry. Is it advisable to take Chem21L or Accelerated Chemistry?</p>
<p>If anyone has done either of these two courses, please share your experience.</p>
<p>I think there may be some sort of rule that you can only take Chem 21 if you don't have AP credit- I'm not sure.
Both classes are designed to weed out people.</p>
<p>Chem 23 tend to have a higher proportion of orgo dropouts after the first week or so. Might be a bit more competitive that way....</p>
<p>On the other hand, I believe AP chem only gives credit for chem 19 which is equivalent to chem 21 but not chem 22. Therefore, if you choose to go the chem 21 route and want to take a higher chem like Orgo later, you would probably need to take chem 22 also and thus would need to take a whole year of gen chem. I think that's how the prereq/AP policy works, I haven't checked it in at least a year...</p>
<p>Wait - I can't take Chem21L if I have AP Credit for Chemistry?</p>
<p>I don't think there's a rule that you can't take a class because you have the AP credit for it. You are always allowed to decline the credit and take the class over again, if you want to.</p>
<p>Edit: by decline I meant that you are allowed to enroll in that class</p>
<p>If the rest of your courseload isn't too demanding, take Accelerated Chem. Many of my friend absolutely despised General Chem. However, I had one friend who took Accelerated Chemistry and, despite moaning and complaining about the toughness of the course, accelerated pulled off a B+. </p>
<p>Regardless of the rigor of both courses routes, many of my friend were jealous that she got rid of General Chemistry in one semester.</p>
<p>I never took Chem 21 or 23, but I'm pretty sure that if you got a 4 or 5 in AP Chem, you can skip both 21 and 22 and go straight to 151.</p>
<p>One bad thing I've heard about Chem 23 is that the labs are graded on accuracy, which means you'll have to make sure your data is accurate (take that as you may), while 21 and 22 labs are just about "good job you didn't set the lab on fire."</p>
<p>HiWei: yes I believe you are correct in that if you have AP chem credit, you can go straight to Orgo and skip the gen chem courses. However, I was talking about what would happen if the OP took chem 21 then decided not to take chem 22 and want to take orgo. By taking chem 21, one is in effect declining the AP credit, and since the AP chem credit isn't split into two courses (like physics C), it might be an "all-or-nothing" deal so taking chem 21 might necessitate taking chem 22 in order to take higher courses. </p>
<p>As for the chem 23 labs, yes one is graded on accuracy and I lost plenty of points for that :/</p>
<p>Oh, right. My bad. You're right I think if you took Chem 21, you'd probably have to take 22 to get the prerequisite for Orgo because you'd be declining AP credit - technically speaking. On the other hand, if you did get a 4 or 5 on the AP Chem test and (more importantly) you did really well in Chem 21, I doubt the Chem department would force you to take Chem 22 and would let you into 151. </p>
<p>This isn't personal experience; its just intuition.</p>
<p>Also, is there a reason you'd want to take Chem 21 then realize you don't want to take Chem 22 and move on to Orgo, specifically? Chem 21 and 22 are exactly like AP Chem with minute differences. If you feel like you need a refresher, just take Chem 23. If you got a 4 or 5 on the AP Chem test, I personally don't think labs based on accuracy will hurt your grade because you'll probably dominate the tests. Either way, good luck.</p>